Emergency and Disaster Management (EDM) Program QEP Goals
The EDM program has adopted three learning goals: solving complex problems, integrating information
from a variety of contexts, and communicating effectively and responsibly. Solving complex problems and
communicating effectively and responsibly were examined as part of a disaster simulation that is provided to
students annually in EDM 448, a Disaster Exercise Design and Evaluation class. Students are required to
assume roles as Emergency Operations Center officials and respond to a simulated disaster. The exercise
communications are then examined for quality of communications and appropriate responses to disasterrelated problems. In this comparison, the 2009 exercise used Second Life as a simulation environment and
the 2011 exercise used WebEOC, however both exercises used the same wiki to provide community profile
and resource information to inform the exercises and the same earthquake event and prompts.
The results of the study showed that the 2009 event in Second Life facilitated more social interaction,
however students were less prepared, asking more role-related questions, directing other students’ actions,
and dealing with technology issues. Fall 2011 students using WebEOC displayed more task-oriented
responses; WebEOC does not foster the same desire for social interaction since students are essentially
completing information logs rather than manipulating virtual avatars during the exercise. Also, changes in
the curriculum and the orientation process better prepared students for both use of the WebEOC technology
and for the role responses appropriate to complete the disaster exercise. Students communicated a higher
quality of status information and were more familiar with role assignments.
Figure 2. Student Response Comparison of 2009 and 2011 EDM 448 Disaster Exercises
An additional study will be conducted in the EDM 448 courses during the fall 2012 semester to compare
with the current assessment. The same earthquake prompts and information wiki will be available to
students. Since WebEOC has been integrated into many of the courses within the EDM Program, students
will likely show more attention to task priorities and more affected role-related responses. Faculty members
also hope to see greater sharing of status and resource information and more collaboration.
QEP Summary October 2012
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